Jaded
by rasri
Summary: It was a stressful day. But he knows that when he arrives home, he'll see his feline freeloader, named Prince.
1. He felt bad

**Jaded.**

Chapter 1

He felt bad

* * *

He did feel bad.

Only a little.

His Himalayan, lilac-point cat that always waited by the same place - when he came back to the condominium - on the pile of his dirty washing, snuggling softly.

He didn't like his cat sitting on the stack of his already worn clothes though, for obvious reasons.

But today was different.

When he pulled out his card key, the cat was already aware of his presence and waited silently in front of the spiraling glass structure on the other side of the door.

Even as he pulled down the leaver, the small gap made was meekly being pushed back by an unknown force, and a struggling one at that - until he saw the fur that slowly crept through the small opening, whiskers suddenly poking out, and a pair of the most vivid olive green eyes that were most familiar to him.

She could continue her antics for as long as she likes, the predicament remains the same - but not in his time.

Although, he wondered as to how long his little feline would keep this up. He was certainly impressed, nobody had been this eager to see him in a long time.

It doesn't matter.

"It's bath time, Prince."


	2. Ring Ring

**Jaded.**

Chapter 2

Ring Ring

* * *

He let out an disgruntled grunt; the one he normally tries to hide during his meetings with the Board of Directors.

Sigh. Their ceaseless deliberations.

And he certainly did not need the cat ticking him off any further. He hung up his coat.

As harsh as it may sound - he had the urge to just... Strangle the thing sometimes. But that wasn't good - he had those poor victims that show up on television due to his usual misdeeds to satisfy his impulses.

But still, that never stopped him from pulling his only pet's tail at the mention of the word.

It was on the verge of exhaustion, it's desperacy to get away from him rivaled with someone grabbing hold of the roots or rocks when on the brink of falling off the edge of a cliff.

He admired the cat again.

On the other hand, he didn't like bending down to pull it's only chance of balance, and it's incessant clawing.

"I don't mind you making marks on the floor, Prince. But I do mind your screeching, it doesn't benefit neither you or I. If you are heading somewhere, then it should be the bathroom."

She looked at him expectantly.

"Bath." He coldly said with a stoic face, much to Prince's disconcertment.

With that, he used his hold on the feline's tail as leverage as he gently placed his palm under it's stomach - much to it's demise - and lifted it off it's paws.

The last thing Prince heard before being placed under the showers was the closing of her owner's doors.

"I changed my mind. This is much faster."

As Prince was being pelted by the harsh coldness of the water, for what seemed to be like icicles and a very long time, it slowly turned warm, and gradually even warmer. On the corner of her eye she witnessed a slight opening that he left open, just narrower than her whiskers were, from which separated her from the outside of the less steamy, cooler environment, but then she saw him, and from what Prince saw, was vigorously washing a very, very, almost microscropic stain out of his white cotton shirt.

She hadn't known it was there until he saw the shirt go slightly translucent as he moved from the sink.

But even the smallest fibre was sufficient, especially in forensics. If that piece of evidence were to be found then it was all that was needed before the whole condo was labelled as a crime scene and said scene would be thoroughly investigated; no grain of sand would be left unturned.

As she nudged her head to open the sliding shower doors, she finally caught on to what he was trying to be rid of; a small speck of pallid blood. That seemed no more noticeable than trying to pinpoint where the cricket was coming from in a wheat field.

When she caught his obsidian eyes; he smiled slightly.

It electrified her to the end of her tail. Prince shook all the water off and stepped onto the bathroom carpet like any civilised being would do, before he sighed slightly at the now, very creased and wrinkled shirt that anyone would be able to tell. He seemed a bit agitated today. Than usual.

She followed him out before he had time to look back to check she was still being bludgeoned by the water, leaving wet, slightly murky paw prints along the way.

She sat patiently by the electric fireplace as he wore the shirt half undone on the armchair. He seemed to be contemplating something, she didn't want to hazard a guess to what that was.

All of the sudden, he tore off his shirt and headed to the kitchen, opened the incinerator, shoved his ruined shirt inside, closed it and pressed the initiating button.

The rectangle window no bigger than a letterbox allowed limited view to what was going on inside, and it only happened within a few seconds. Fire blazed, and all was gone, in one fell swoop.

Funny.

All the tension suddenly left him as fast as the fire ignited and extinguished.

He turned his head ever so slightly; to face her; stolid. In a few strides he stood by the threshold of the door; where she was, and scooped her up.

"Following your owner out of the bathroom, Prince, you are either very brave or very foolish. I'm putting you back in the showers."

He walked to a drawer and pulled out a comb, washing it slightly in the sink with one hand before drying it. Before Prince knew it, she was being combed head-first by the unsuspecting bachelor.

But after all she's witnessed, and her suspicions confirmed; she suddenly felt reluctant to disobey him.

Uchiha Sasuke.

He was in his trousers, which were rolled up, and his socks tossed to one side, only in his bath shoes as he held the feline furball by it's thick, sandy hair, stroking it slightly when he brought it under the shower head, the cat looking like it was about to pounce any second now purely by instincts. She really hated this.

"_Let go! Let go_!" She mentally fought, as he continued washing her, her face even more squished that it naturally was as she pulled many dull expressions, and colourful language during her - ahem - battle.

"Calm down, Prince. It's not like you haven't gone through this before. You shouldn't have been sleeping on that pile again."

"_Whoops. He knew._" She thought, "he is pretty _observant, nothing less of that._" She paused at her sudden side-swapping, "_b-but still!_"

"I can just smell it on you..." He said coldly, as he realised a part of his hair was becoming slightly damp at the sprays emitted from the shower running, and Prince's rough shaking of her head from time to time, leaving droplets of water on his face.

Once she heard the click of the mild shampoo container, she quivered.

RING

RING

RING.

RING

RING

RING.

"_Talk about being saved by the bell._" The cat let out a soft sigh as she heard him do the same, but for different reasons.

"If you follow me out while you're all wet like that, Prince, no sleeping on the same bed tonight." He said as he washed off the shampoo and dried his hands.

She felt so belittled by his comment that she wished that she soaked enough water last time from the shower to make soggy enough paw prints for him to slip over once stepped out of the room.

A wish that remained unanswered.

She stayed in the bathroom all right, but she crept out of the stone ground and onto the beige marble flooring, and stood by the opening of the door as she watched him pick up the phone and striding casually to the windows from which carried beautiful city skyscrapers and reflections of the restaurants and pubs and architecture and the almost ethereal city lights which looked like jewels radiating in caves.

But he didn't see that; all he saw was his cat's reflection staring at him intently from the other side of the room, almost concealed steam that almost camouflaged it's whole form.

Why does his cat always follow him? Did he have some kind of cat nip on himself? What did Prince want? Maybe it-

"_Hello_?"

"Good evening." He said in his smooth, velvety low tone. Prince nudged to the side, did he know he was doing that? "And who may this be?"

The exchange went on for a while, long enough for her to become lost in her own reflection on the window that tilted slightly downwards. She almost began day dreaming, seeing herself being tossed out through the clerestory one day - but instantaneously snapping out of it when she heard a very firm, almost command-like speech.

"I see. That _is_ a shame, because I have no intention of doing so." Prince noted how the conversation was coming to an abrupt end, the lack of an upward inflection in his voice, sounding absolutely resolute.

With that he pressed the red button and discontinued the call, even without hearing what the other party had to say in defence.

He had a very calm expression for someone who had just dismissed what seems to be an important call, very unsatisfied and had a rather large ego at times.

His demeanour didn't change much from when he was in better moods, though.

He was indifferent. And he always seemed even more detached when she was there at times.

Prince gulped as his gaze from the city lights orientated to her, about to give her another lecture, she supposed.

He approached her with a burning look in his eyes, clearly aggravated in some way, probably due to the her or the previous call. She hoped, for her sake, that it was the latter.

The hair on her head stood up, which almost alarmed her if he wasn't staring just slightly above her ears.

"I'll pulverize that bastard the next time he tries to pull a fast one on me like that." He said, pushing down harder than required. "I'll get rid of them all until he's the only one left." Odd how he was petting her head for a short while, almost as if the fur was a mediating object in which he can relax a little, until she let out an alarming screech.

"_L-Leave me alone_!" Prince yelled, which for some reason, came out as a pur.

"You'd like that too, wouldn't you, Prince?"

"_WOW. NO, I WOULDN'T_."

"Anyways, that still doesn't change the fact that you're a wet furball that needs to be punished for coming out of the bathroom completely drenched."

She gulped. Again. She had been so mezmerised by his earlier actions that she had forgotten that she had stepped over the boundaries... Literally.

Expecting him to grab her coat, he went to the airing cupboard and pulled out a red towel, walked back and picked her up.

He began rubbing the cloth on her fur as he sat on his sofa, halfheartedly amused by her attempted escapes from his palm as she was biting, scratching and clawing every part of his skin that came in contact within a certain radius within her personal area, and he flinched when she bit under the sensitive part of his wrist, which caused him to let her go gently, lowering her figure on the floor, taking it as a sign that she could dry herself off.

He chuckled. He mused to himself how unsightly the cat was under the blanket of cloth at least three times her size as it spread on the floor.

The cat looked so appetizing when covered in crimson...

He smirked to himself. Maybe it wouldn't be so long. It was almost 6pm.

2 more minutes. And he'll be asleep.

Tick

Tock.

Tick

Tock.

Tick

Tock...

6 O'clock.

"Sasuke?" A feminine voice, almost a whisper, called out to the onyx haired gentleman. "Sasuke..." This sounded more relieved. He felt something prodding on his head, and slowing drifted to the side. It was Prince and her constant nudging. Did she just lick his hair?

At least she was no longer wet.

"Am I back in this world again, Prince?" He paused, "they must be kicking in sooner than I thought." He felt the last few words slightly slurring.

Was he OK? Perhaps.

How would you define it?

Could you?

"Sasuke, why do they always put you on these medications?" It's funny...

How Prince could talk to him during his lowest experiences - literally. He was on the verge of collapsing if it wasn't for his sudden mental grasp on reality.

"Because you're only a figment of my imagination."

It was 6:01pm.

And he immediately snapped out of it.


End file.
